This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
At first glance, today’s readings go together somewhat awkwardly. We have Job, who has just lost everything, expressing a moving, unconditional trust not only that he will receive good from the hand of God, but that he will receive the ultimate good–that He will see God Himself. The psalm echoes Job’s monumental hope: “I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.”
Then, in the Gospel passage, we see Jesus sending out the seventy-two disciples, two by two, on an exciting mission, where they will exercise His own evangelizing and healing power.
So, let’s put these two passages together. Imagine Jesus entering Job’s life, when he is bereft of everything, and even while Job is struggling and expressing his marvelous virtue of trust, Jesus asks him to launch forth on a mission.
Yet, when we think about it, this is, in fact, the situation of the apostle. While we don’t know much about the seventy-two, we do know that the twelve apostles had left their nets, left everything behind to follow God’s will in their lives. Like Job, they were bereft of everything except God, except Jesus. As for the seventy-two, they are asked to set forth on their mission without money or baggage–without even the bare necessities, and Jesus says He is sending them “as sheep among wolves.”
In our lives, Jesus does not ask us to spread the word about Him from a position of wealth, security, comfort, strength, or even incontrovertible human logic. He asks us to spread the word about Him from a position of neediness, vulnerability, and weakness.
Many hesitate to spread the word about Jesus to others, not because they doubt Jesus, but because they believe that they themselves do not have what it takes. Extreme trust like that of Job is in fact necessary to overcome this hesitancy, trusting not in our own qualities of persuasion, but rather in the direct power Jesus with His grace will exert in the human heart as it hears His message.
Today is the memorial of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. If anyone had an excuse not to evangelize it was she–she was cooped up in a cloister and had access to no one! And yet, because of her deep love for Jesus and desire for others to know Him, and above all her trust in His power, she successfully evangelized through her prayer, to such a degree that Pius XI declared her Patroness of the Missions in 1927.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus in what way He wants you to spread Him to other hearts. If the question is difficult for you, tell Him that you trust not in your own power for persuasion, courage, or good judgement, but rather you trust that He will let you know when and how He wants you to act.
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